Highlights
- •Modeled manual therapy on rats over a 12-week repetitive motion task reduced adverse behaviors and improved task performance.
- •Modeled manual therapy also attenuated increases in collagen and TGF-β1 deposition in forearm tissues, including nerve.
- •Investigation of manual therapy as a preventative for hand and wrist work-related musculoskeletal disorders is indicated.
Abstract
Key clinical features of carpal tunnel syndrome and other types of cumulative trauma
disorders of the hand and wrist include pain and functional disabilities. Mechanistic
details remain under investigation but may involve tissue inflammation and/or fibrosis.
We examined the effectiveness of modeled manual therapy (MMT) as a treatment for sensorimotor
behavior declines and increased fibrogenic processes occurring in forearm tissues
of rats performing a high repetition high force (HRHF) reaching and grasping task
for 12 weeks. Young adult, female rats were examined: food restricted control rats (FRC,
n = 12); rats that were trained for 6 weeks before performing the HRHF task for 12 weeks with no treatment (HRHF-CON, n = 11); and HRHF task rats received modeled manual therapy (HRHF-MMT, n = 5) for 5 days/week for the duration of the 12-week of task. Rats receiving the MMT expressed
fewer discomfort-related behaviors, and performed progressively better in the HRHF
task. Grip strength, while decreased after training, improved following MMT. Fibrotic
nerve and connective tissue changes (increased collagen and TGF-β1 deposition) present
in 12-week HRHF-CON rats were significantly decreased in 12-week HRHF-MMT rats. These
observations support the investigation of manual therapy as a preventative for repetitive
motion disorders.
Abbreviations:
(MMT) (modeled manual therapy), (centiNewton) (cN), (ECM) (extracellular matrix), (FRC) (food-restricted control), (HRHF) (high repetition high force), (ms) (milliseconds), (MSDs) (musculoskeletal disorders), (TGF-β1) (transforming growth factor beta), (TNFα) (tumor necrosis factor alpha), (WMSDs) (work-related musculoskeletal disorders)Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 24, 2015
Accepted:
December 17,
2015
Received in revised form:
December 16,
2015
Received:
July 18,
2015
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
